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Sunset Bill Still Center Stage on Special Session Day Two

Posted on Friday, July 21, 2017 by Francis Harris

Gov. Greg Abbott

Texas legislators could end up passing bills to reform the state's school finance system and help out retired teachers this special session.

As for the sunset bill - It now heads to the Texas House.

The governor's announcement came nearly a week after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick held an education-themed news conference to discuss school finance and teacher pay increases, a departure from his priorities during the regular session.

After the vote, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) made a strategic play to move the Governor's agenda forward more quickly.

"My goal from day one is to pass every one of the governor's 20 priorities".

The first order of business for this Texas Special Legislative Session is in the books "with pizza and soda pop", as Texas Tribune reporter Alana Rocha said.

This weekend, Patrick says committees will meet between 10 and 15 hours a day, so they can vote next week and then get everything over to the House.

Texas House approval is expected soon.

CEOs of 14 companies, including many headquartered in North Texas, wrote a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott this week, expressing concerns about the legislation, which would limit the public restrooms transgender people can use to the gender listed on their birth certificate. Tech giant IBM ran a full-page ad in local publications that said the company "opposes any measure that would harm the state's LGBT+ community and make it hard for businesses to attract and retain talented Texans". Moderate voices say Texas will face the same backlash North Carolina did previous year when it passed a similar but broader bill.

The Senate will reconvene one minute after midnight, when lawmakers in the upper chamber can take a final vote on both bills.

"I'm affected by this potential legislation and so are potentially about 125,000 other transgender Texans", she said.

Though some advocate were not pleased that the North Carolina repeal went far enough, it did prevent a massive loss of revenue for the state. "And the idea that you are going to be able to enforce a bathroom bill, I mean the enforceability is just not there".

The relationship between the two state leaders remains very icy.

She said she took the picture to prove a point: transgender people "don't pose a threat" to the general public.

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